No, no, no, no, no, no....Maryland might not be tops, but there are some great rivalries there. Don't run away just because you are middle of the pack, it's not the right response to just needing to improve your athletics.

INeedAName:No, no, no, no, no, no....Maryland might not be tops, but there are some great rivalries there. Don't run away just because you are middle of the pack, it's not the right response to just needing to improve your athletics.

I think it has more to do with Kevin Plank wanting Maryland to more be like Oregon in football and being in the ACC and not being a school in the state of Florida will limit the type of recruits that they get. It also helps that the Big 10 has its own TV network and will give the Terps a lot more media coverage especially when they play Ohio State and Penn State every year.

CipollinaFan:INeedAName: No, no, no, no, no, no....Maryland might not be tops, but there are some great rivalries there. Don't run away just because you are middle of the pack, it's not the right response to just needing to improve your athletics.

I think it has more to do with Kevin Plank wanting Maryland to more be like Oregon in football and being in the ACC and not being a school in the state of Florida will limit the type of recruits that they get. It also helps that the Big 10 has its own TV network and will give the Terps a lot more media coverage especially when they play Ohio State and Penn State every year.

With Maryland's luck, they'll be in the opposite division and get to travel to Nebraska every other year.

/Of course, one of them will have to make the long trip to Nebraska every other year, anyways, so.

Maryland president Wallace Loh and AD Kevin Anderson are newcomers who want to shake things up to make names for themselves. Neither one of them gives a flying fark at a rolling donut about the school. They are making changes that will affect the school for years to come, and both of them would bolt in a heartbeat for a more prestigious or higher paying job. I seriously doubt the board of trustees is going to allow them to spend 50 million dollars to further their careers at the expense of the school.

As a Big Ten sports fan, I've been very excited about this news as it looks to finally bring the B1G over the the east coast. Most cable packages out here don't carry the Big Ten Network, making it very hard to watch football and basketball games that aren't streaming online :(

My Rutgers alum friends should be pretty ecstatic too. They've been worried for quite awhile that Rutgers might get left behind in all the conference shuffling when the Big East inevitably collapses. I assured them that regardless of the Big East's fate, their school was still safe since they were simply in too big and too lucrative of a TV market (NYC area) to not get picked up by another major conference. Looks like I was right.

I'm so farking sick of this whole conference realignment thing. If you're a good team, or a good conference, it should not matter one farking iota where you have a "presence." And what's worse, we're talking about one sport, out of the couple dozen or so that the NCAA backs, driving all this shiat. Never mind that the ACC and Big East have always been and will always be basketball conferences, nooo. We gotta get those football dollars before someone with enough power shuts this whole retarded circle jerk of realignment down.

Fark you both, Maryland and Rutgers. You're both completely irrelevant in the long-term football eye, but you think that going to the Big Conference will solve everything? News flash: It won't. You'll still be flashes in the pan every once in a blue moon who wouldn't make it to a relevant bowl game if it killed them. Rutgers football will get curbstomped regularly in all sports except possibly women's hoops, and the Twerps? Ha. Like someone said upthread, you're leaving one conference where you're overlooked in basketball, your only REAL sport, for another. Substitute MSU for Dook, Indiana for UNC, and add another powerhouse or two every year, and lo and behold you have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. You're a basketball school in a basketball conference, going to another conference isn't going to change your outlook.

I'm almost glad we're getting to a point where the Big East basketball schools need to split off, because I'm tired of this shiat.

Can we just admit that the big east as a football conference was a mistake, laid bare by the departure of Pitt, Syracuse, etc? And that the expansion to try to preserve it, adding Houston, Boise, and San Diego trips to the schedule for East Coast schools, was even worse than the original idea?

I don't know where this smoke is coming from, but their board of regents/governors/trustees is NEVER going to agree to something like that. Too many of them enjoy their ACC ties, and no one in that athletic department would think leaving a conference where they play in the state of Florida for one where they never play in FL, TX, or CA is completely absurd. Their football program needs every advantage it can get, and giving up all of those to become Indiana and Minnesota's biatch is silly.

I guess they're upset because they won't be able to have their riot Duke home game every year. They're also probably worried that the ACC is becoming geographically divided, and they're afraid that they'll end up in the new Big East. The Big Ten was able to lure Nebraska away from their traditional rivals because they felt overlooked in their conference, maybe the Big Ten can do it again.

As an ACC fan, I hope this is just Maryland throwing a tantrum to get attention...

Don't really see this happening... The Big Ten only takes one of these schools (most likely Maryland if it feels not loved in the ACC) if it gets a gamechanger and wants to stay at a even numbers. Neither of these schools offer enough to force the Big Ten to make a move. Not enough tv sets, not enough athletics, not enough academics.

Can we just get rid of conferences completely? Just make them illegal; as in, you will be shot to death, without a trial or even an utterance of what the crime was, on the spot (and any citizen who saves the LEOs the effort of drawing the gun gets immediate ownership of all your property) if you even just say the word "conference". Make all universities make a schedule from scratch each spring, with no predetermined match-ups, the BCS enforces an onerously high Strength of Schedule factor, no have-a-personal-stake-in-the-results coach's poll, nor Screaming Panty-Sopping Fangirl sports writers' poll, and what happens, happens.

/In all seriousness, I would prefer an EPL-style tiered system, where ranks would be determined solely on game results and sustained performance - but evidently college football needs "tradition", which from available evidence is defined as "retarded bullshiat that has nothing to do with the game in any way, but simply is wanking for the sake of wankery"

the_vegetarian_cannibal:As a Big Ten sports fan, I've been very excited about this news as it looks to finally bring the B1G over the the east coast. Most cable packages out here don't carry the Big Ten Network, making it very hard to watch football and basketball games that aren't streaming online :(

My Rutgers alum friends should be pretty ecstatic too. They've been worried for quite awhile that Rutgers might get left behind in all the conference shuffling when the Big East inevitably collapses. I assured them that regardless of the Big East's fate, their school was still safe since they were simply in too big and too lucrative of a TV market (NYC area) to not get picked up by another major conference. Looks like I was right.

And you're a prime example of why they're looking at this. Getting the (very profitable) big ten network in the New York and DC markets is what this is all about.

SnarfVader:runujhkj: Luckily, it doesn't involve the SEC, so it continues not to matter.

Luckily, once football season is over, the SEC continues not to matter.

Aren't you cute? Who is the NCAA men's basketball champion? And the conference just added MO. With the addition of aTm to SC, FL, LSU, and Vanderbilt means the SEC could have half the college world series entries.

I know that this is all about money, but could you at least pretend to care about making the Big Ten competitive in football again?

Sincerely,People who have to watch teams the best teams in this conference almost lost to farking Cal

CipollinaFan:So Maryland will dominate the new division in basketball, soccer, LAX and all women's sports and will exist as a joke of football team with cool uniforms.

Basketball? The Big Ten has three teams in the top 5. Are the Terps even in the top 25?

phalamir:Can we just get rid of conferences completely? Just make them illegal; as in, you will be shot to death, without a trial or even an utterance of what the crime was, on the spot (and any citizen who saves the LEOs the effort of drawing the gun gets immediate ownership of all your property) if you even just say the word "conference". Make all universities make a schedule from scratch each spring, with no predetermined match-ups, the BCS enforces an onerously high Strength of Schedule factor, no have-a-personal-stake-in-the-results coach's poll, nor Screaming Panty-Sopping Fangirl sports writers' poll, and what happens, happens.

/In all seriousness, I would prefer an EPL-style tiered system, where ranks would be determined solely on game results and sustained performance - but evidently college football needs "tradition", which from available evidence is defined as "retarded bullshiat that has nothing to do with the game in any way, but simply is wanking for the sake of wankery"

Some of us enjoy that tradition, and would much rather have that than a tiered system. That tradition consists of heated rivalries that dwarf anything seen in other sports. Even the pro leagues (in the US at least) have divisions and conferences.

PluckYew:SnarfVader: runujhkj: Luckily, it doesn't involve the SEC, so it continues not to matter.

Luckily, once football season is over, the SEC continues not to matter.

Aren't you cute? Who is the NCAA men's basketball champion? And the conference just added MO. With the addition of aTm to SC, FL, LSU, and Vanderbilt means the SEC could have half the college world series entries.

Which conference has the most NCAA championships? Go ahead. Look it up. I'll wait.

My point to the original post was that there are sports beyond football and the SEC doesn't dominate them all. Though I suppose that's what I get for responding to the troll post in the first place.

That_Dude:Some of us enjoy that tradition, and would much rather have that than a tiered system. That tradition consists of heated rivalries that dwarf anything seen in other sports

well,t he cold, hard truth is that tradition is making Div 1A football absurdly stupid to watch on a meta-level. You can either have "tradition" or a championship system that doesn't look like an Alabama family reunion/gang-bang. You can retreat back to the state-level and/or regional-level focus that caused those traditional rivalries - but nationally, those things get in the way of any meaningful way to decide a best team. Instead we get the current system where there is almost no way to make meaningful comparisons between major teams, because the mutual-fingerbanging of conferences means there is precious little cross-conference play (and, no, whipping Central Eastern Western State Tech in Div XIV like a rented slave doesn't count) to achieve a baseline for comparison (and, no, Fark lurker entrail-reading doesn't count).

Actually, my scheme does let you play a little against historic rivals. Split the top 60 teams in Div 1A into a new organization. Arrange them by rankings based on records for the last thirty years, weighting for more recent years. 6 tiers of 10 each. You play every other team in your tier once; you also get two games against anyone you want that will play you, but those games have no bearing on your tier rank*. Top 4 in each tier have a play-off. Top 3 rise, bottom 3 drop (excepting Tiers 1 and 6, respectively)

* So, ass-raping Savannah State or spitting at Spartie are perfectly allowed, but are played for purely "traditional" reasons

SnarfVader:PluckYew: SnarfVader: runujhkj: Luckily, it doesn't involve the SEC, so it continues not to matter.

Luckily, once football season is over, the SEC continues not to matter.

Aren't you cute? Who is the NCAA men's basketball champion? And the conference just added MO. With the addition of aTm to SC, FL, LSU, and Vanderbilt means the SEC could have half the college world series entries.

Which conference has the most NCAA championships? Go ahead. Look it up. I'll wait.

My point to the original post was that there are sports beyond football and the SEC doesn't dominate them all. Though I suppose that's what I get for responding to the troll post in the first place.

I think historically the answer is the PAC 12, unless I'm misremembering my history. But Google has backed me up here. How many of those championships are water polo or skiing? Or snerk women's volleyball? Or hell, women's anything? And this isn't bigotry; people won't watch a women's sport on TV, statistically, as much as football, baseball, basketball, etc. And so schools that do well in women's X won't get as much money, you following me?

SnarfVader:PluckYew: SnarfVader: runujhkj: Luckily, it doesn't involve the SEC, so it continues not to matter.

Luckily, once football season is over, the SEC continues not to matter.

Aren't you cute? Who is the NCAA men's basketball champion? And the conference just added MO. With the addition of aTm to SC, FL, LSU, and Vanderbilt means the SEC could have half the college world series entries.

Which conference has the most NCAA championships? Go ahead. Look it up. I'll wait.

My point to the original post was that there are sports beyond football and the SEC doesn't dominate them all. Though I suppose that's what I get for responding to the troll post in the first place.

The problem is that football is all that matters. Kentucky made more money with football last year than they did with basketball. That should tell you all you need to know about the power of that sport and why there realignment is all about football.

PluckYew:Aren't you cute? Who is the NCAA men's basketball champion? And the conference just added MO. With the addition of aTm to SC, FL, LSU, and Vanderbilt means the SEC could have half the college world series entries.

I'm telling you right now, when Frank Martin gets things rolling at South Carolina, the SC-Mizzou-Arkansas games are going to be epic. EPIC.

runujhkj:SnarfVader: PluckYew: SnarfVader: runujhkj: Luckily, it doesn't involve the SEC, so it continues not to matter.

Luckily, once football season is over, the SEC continues not to matter.

Aren't you cute? Who is the NCAA men's basketball champion? And the conference just added MO. With the addition of aTm to SC, FL, LSU, and Vanderbilt means the SEC could have half the college world series entries.

Which conference has the most NCAA championships? Go ahead. Look it up. I'll wait.

My point to the original post was that there are sports beyond football and the SEC doesn't dominate them all. Though I suppose that's what I get for responding to the troll post in the first place.

I think historically the answer is the PAC 12, unless I'm misremembering my history. But Google has backed me up here. How many of those championships are water polo or skiing? Or snerk women's volleyball? Or hell, women's anything? And this isn't bigotry; people won't watch a women's sport on TV, statistically, as much as football, baseball, basketball, etc. And so schools that do well in women's X won't get as much money, you following me?

But you think I'm trolling, so who gives a damn what I say, right?

Alright. The SEC has 222 total championships (men and women). 38 in football, 11 in men's basketball (plus claims for 3 more), and 9 in baseball. Your so called important sports. The Pac 12 has 451 total championships. 21 in football, 15 in men's basketball, and 22 in baseball. So, guess what? The PAC 12 still has more than you in baseball and men's basketball. It's not just women's sports.

carnifex2005:SnarfVader: PluckYew: SnarfVader: runujhkj: Luckily, it doesn't involve the SEC, so it continues not to matter.

Luckily, once football season is over, the SEC continues not to matter.

Aren't you cute? Who is the NCAA men's basketball champion? And the conference just added MO. With the addition of aTm to SC, FL, LSU, and Vanderbilt means the SEC could have half the college world series entries.

Which conference has the most NCAA championships? Go ahead. Look it up. I'll wait.

My point to the original post was that there are sports beyond football and the SEC doesn't dominate them all. Though I suppose that's what I get for responding to the troll post in the first place.

The problem is that football is all that matters. Kentucky made more money with football last year than they did with basketball. That should tell you all you need to know about the power of that sport and why there realignment is all about football.

That's a good point and a much better argument than the original poster's flippant remark.

This is the last year I'm a Big 10 fan. I can't wait to see how they spin it to try to make it look like it makes Big 10 a better conference. MD and Rutgers bring nothing to the table except TV revenue.

As a Maryland '01 grad, I'm fine with it. Forget about when it started in '53, this is nothing like even the ACC in which I went to school. Basketball home-and-aways against UNC and Duke haven't happened since Miami and BC and VT got onboard. Our football team has been doing better at recruiting in the last couple of years and this is one hell of a bump. The athletic department was in dire financial straits anyhow, and this will help significantly. Ain't no way Maryland will pay $50m to part ways with the conference; even if it ends up legally binding, we'll see UnderArmour foot a significant portion of that bill.

If the ACC still had just nine schools in it I would be pitching a gigantic fuss -- but in the era of consolidated superconferences, B1G is a better fit.

I don't know where this smoke is coming from, but their board of regents/governors/trustees is NEVER going to agree to something like that. Too many of them enjoy their ACC ties, and no one in that athletic department would think leaving a conference where they play in the state of Florida for one where they never play in FL, TX, or CA is completely absurd. Their football program needs every advantage it can get, and giving up all of those to become Indiana and Minnesota's biatch is silly.

Wow, I was sure that the Maryland Board of Trustees would be smarter than this.

LL316:This is the last year I'm a Big 10 fan. I can't wait to see how they spin it to try to make it look like it makes Big 10 a better conference. MD and Rutgers bring nothing to the table except TV revenue.

I still don't get it. I am competely fine with it being all about the money. But I don't see how this works.

Rutgers is not in NYC... I very much doubt the cable companies of NYC care. Are they really going to get $1/month/subscriber?

And I don't even think Maryland really lands DC. I am in DC now; I know more PSU, MSU, and UM alums than people from Maryland.

I have to assume the Big Ten Network has the deals in hand; if they don't, this can blow up real quick.

bacongood:LL316: This is the last year I'm a Big 10 fan. I can't wait to see how they spin it to try to make it look like it makes Big 10 a better conference. MD and Rutgers bring nothing to the table except TV revenue.

I still don't get it. I am competely fine with it being all about the money. But I don't see how this works.

Rutgers is not in NYC... I very much doubt the cable companies of NYC care. Are they really going to get $1/month/subscriber?

And I don't even think Maryland really lands DC. I am in DC now; I know more PSU, MSU, and UM alums than people from Maryland.

I have to assume the Big Ten Network has the deals in hand; if they don't, this can blow up real quick.

Yeah, all the Maryland undergrads are fat chicks from Long Island...or so I've heard.